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Miscellaneous legislative updates

Some other things happening around the legislature.

BeerI don’t remember covering this earlier, but here it goes. Anyways, a pair of bills that recently passed the Senate unanimously which would make things a lot easier for craft beer brewers, is continuing to advance. The Chron reported on tuesday that the House Licensing Committee voted, once again, unanimously to advance this bill. The only remaining obstacle would be to hold a vote before the full House.

As the Chronicle states, “In what would be among the biggest changes to the state’s beer laws in 20 years, the legislation would allow breweries to sell a limited amount of beer in their own taprooms for consumption on site. Another major provision would allow brewpubs to package beer for sale in groceries and other off-site outlets.” Off the Kuff has more.

SNAPThe Trib is reporting that Senator Lucio’s SB 379, which would require schools to offer free breakfasts if 80%+ of their students qualified for free lunches, passed the Senate 27-4. The four opponents were Troy Fraser (Burnet County), Jane Nelson (Denton County), Robert Nichols (Jacksonville County) and, last but not least, my Senator, Joan Huffman (Harris County). All opponents were Republicans.

According to the Tribune article, the bill is “cost-neutral and potentially profitable,” I’m guessing, because it’s the Feds and not the State that pays for free school lunches (SNAP). Accordingly, I don’t quite understand why even the Tea Party would oppose this. If the Democrats aren’t too freaking lazy to run a candidate against Huffman in 2014 (like they were in 2012), this is the stuff they should be talking about in their commercials.

Romeo & RomeoThe Dallas Voice reports that HB 2403, Mary Gonzalez’s House equivalent of Sen. Whitmire’s bill to expand the “Romeo+Juliet exception” to both Romeo & Romeo and Juliet & Juliet, has passed the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee 5-3. No idea on the roll call as of now. This means that the legislation has passed committee in both Houses of the Legislature. I can trust Whitmire to force the thing through the Senate, but am less optimistic about the chances in the full House. Time will tell, I suppose.